The Senator representing Eket Senatorial District, Chief Nelson Effiong, has faulted Governor Udom Emmanuel for breach of agreement, saying “he agreed with political leaders in the state not to seek re-election in 2019.”
“The agreement we had when Senator Godswill Akpabio was the Governor was that his successor, Governor Udom Emmanuel, will go for only one term, and then Oron people will produce the next Governor before the thing comes to Uyo for eight years and then go to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District,” Chief Effiong said.
Speaking recently on an Uyo-based radio station, Planet FM, Chief Effiong, elected in 2015 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) defected last week to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), said “the division within the PDP today is the reason for his action.”
Though he was not categorical about when and where the alleged agreement was made and those who were the major actors, Chief Effiong, who is a former speaker of the state house of assembly, said “That arrangement subsists and must be enforced.”
The Senator said it was “political naivety” for Governor Udom Emmanuel to sponsor people to begin to adopt him for a second term in office, maintaining that the political leaders in the state would challenge the Governor’s ambition for a second term when the time comes.
“The whole drama going on about adoption is a negation of that arrangement, and cannot stand the test of time. We will challenge it when the time comes. We didn’t know that the shoes of our former Governor, Senator Godswill Akpabio, left behind were too large for Udom.”
“The state has no direction. He goes here and there and does ground-breaking, and would be promising the people industry. Mention one industry he has built. He has no blueprint and no focus. I can score him 10 per cent for breaking grounds here and there. This is the worst governor we have had since the creation of Akwa Ibom state. Udom’s idea of empowerment is to share N20, 000 to elders, women, and youth in the state. Because he has a chief adviser called Ephraim Inyang which he brought in from Lagos, he had to stop inter-ministerial direct labour project. Go and see how the state is like. Have you seen any prosperity in the state?”
Reacting to the development, Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Charles Udoh, dismissed the claim that Governor Udom Emmanuel had agreed to be in office for only one term.
“I wonder where he got such information from. I can authoritatively tell you that there’s no such agreement, and that is why you could hear and see the widespread endorsement of the governor to run for a second term,” he said.
Mr. Udoh said that Udom Emmanuel left his blossoming job at Zenith Bank to serve his people, and that what he needed most was encouragement and support from the people.
According to the Commissioner, “He is a very transparent, honest and religious man. He is a man who keeps to his words. This is a man who didn’t come here because he is hungry or power drunk.”
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Am compelled to believe you sire